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Ammonia is present in soil, water and air, and it is an important source of nitrogen for plants. Nitrogen promotes plant growth and improves fruit and seed production, resulting in a greater yield. It's also essential for photosynthesis, which is the process in which plants convert light energy into chemical energy.
Keeping this in consideration, why is ammonia used as fertilizer?
Ammonia is manufactured in the soil by organisms when organic fertilizer is used to increase soil fertility. Organic fertilizer, with its natural waste products, supports the growth of the billions of microorganisms that produce ammonia, which is then converted to the essential nutrient, nitrogen.
Hereof, why ammonia is not used as a fertilizer?
Unfortunately, pure ammonia in solution is not typically an effective source of nitrogen when applied to the soil. Salts of ammonium are not volatile (like NH3, ammonia) and are unlikely to be lost through leaching of the soil (like nitrate), so are popular as a component of nitrogen fertilizer.
Toxicity occurs when ammonium has built up to excessive lev- els in the substrate and plants absorb harmful amounts of it. Luckily, under normal growing conditions of warm temperatures and a well-aerated substrate, ammoniacal nitrogen forms are con- verted to nitrate by naturally occurring bacteria called nitrifiers.